


Prologue - Ignis and the Beast

by Moon_Raccoon_exe



Series: Ignis and the Beast [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 05:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11707758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Raccoon_exe/pseuds/Moon_Raccoon_exe
Summary: Prologue to:Beauty and the Beast Gladnis AU:Ignis Scientia, son of a sick inventor and nephew to the town's mayor, ends up prisoner in a dark castle guarded by an imposing beast under the name of Gladiolus, and talking furniture.With no chances to escape, Ignis has to deal with a moody beast through the months, unaware that his sole presence may be the only key to breaking an ancient curse set upon the castle by an evil Wizard who may or not still wander around to prevent it from happening.Could Ignis, a simple town boy with passion for cooking, soften the beast's heart and break the spell?





	Prologue - Ignis and the Beast

**Author's Note:**

> Please do be aware that it's not the Insomnia and Lucis we know: for the sake of fitting the AU, I had to set it in a different fantasy world more alike to the real world renaissance of sorts. There are minor changes, of course (magic included, public schools, etc.) things that are not "historically accurate": that's the point, it's fiction.
> 
> So be aware, no cars, no cell phones, etc. Having changed Ignis' position, it also felt /very/ strange to have him talk in extreme formality, so I've made him much less uptight (thing that may not show during his first months in the castle, but shows in chapter 1 and near the end, I think?)
> 
> Beware: later as chapters advance, there'll be lots of angst.
> 
> I had been thinking of this AU for a very long while but only now sat down to write it. I apologize if I don't update as fast as some would possibly like, but I do will be working on it when I get the time.
> 
> Many headcanons came from conversations with AO3 user dontselloutbuyin.
> 
> They came up with excellent, brilliant ideas, but most have to wait for later chapters. You'll enjoy them as much as I did, I'm sure!
> 
> You can look for me on Tumblr as moonraccoon-exe.
> 
> I've shared two headcanon posts in there on the story. You can look for them, or you can wait to read them as they appear here.
> 
> All in all, please do enjoy.

#  Ignis and the Beast

### Prologue

Once upon a time, because this is how stories of old begin…  


In a place of Eos, in the Kingdom of Lucis, existed the capital city of Insomnia. It was a rich and prosperous kingdom recently coming to the end of a war against an enemy empire under the name of Niflheim.  
The Kingdom of Lucis and the Empire of Niflheim had decided to call for peace and put an end to the unnecessarily spilled blood of the battlefields.  


One day, Niflheim’s emperor, along his council and some guarding troops, were welcomed into the capital city of Insomnia. Despite the people’s distrust in the empire, they felt secure and hopeful, for their king Regis Lucis Caelum the CXIII of his name was a man of rightfulness and justice, and they trusted in his decision.  
Welcomed into the castle, better known by the name of the Citadel, for a welcoming banquet and party prior to the signing of a treaty, the Niflheim visitors entered: Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt was welcomed warmly and shared a handshake with King Regis. Standing at the side of the king, prince Noctis, aged fifteen, nodded at the Emperor as his etiquette did not ask him for any handshake.  
To them was presented Niflheim’s chancellor, a red-haired man with a hat and a long coat, who presented a reverence to the king and his son, smiling.  


The party prior to the signing went on with no major troubles. Kingsglaives guarded the palace and their king and prince, the only two members of the throne family alive, while Niflheim forces guarded their Emperor or mounted guard nearby.  
The tension was palpable in the air, but everybody kept their masks on.  


Prince Noctis was that night accompanied by his three closest friends: Prompto Argentum, a golden-haired boy that did not belong to royalty, and who Noctis met in a school of the city. Quickly becoming intimate and best friends, Prompto had attended the ceremony under half of Noctis’ invitation and half insisting on him when Noctis changed his mind. Despite his obvious terror for the Niflheim forces in the same room than he was standing in, Prompto did not let Noctis go alone. He never said it, but the prince easily figured out that his friend was in a desperate need of making sure nothing happened to Noctis, even if that meant getting harmed himself instead.  
Visitor of another and smaller kingdom, lady Lunafreya, aged nineteen, stood by his side as well. She, her older brother Ravus and their mother had visited, for the signature of the queen was required in the treaty (Lucis had agreed to Niflheim’s terms so long their forces abandoned Tenebrae and gave it back its full independence). Having befriended years ago and communicating thanks to their dogs Umbra and Pryna, and a notebook, Lunafreya and Noctis could get the chance to meet in person again, despite Ravus’ obvious discontent of the idea.  


And his third closest friend, a brother of different blood to prince Noctis, under the title of The Prince’s Sworn Shield, Gladiolus Amicitia.  


His duty in life was to be to Noctis what his father, Clarus Amicitia, was to King Regis. Not only a bodyguard, but also an unbreakable shield, for their lives could not be harmed or destroyed if the Amicitia could help it. That night, father and son wished each other luck, and both left to their respective duties: Clarus, slightly behind and to the right of Regis, never left his King’s side, just like Gladiolus never left Noctis’, even if his treatment with the young prince was less formal and much freer to hang around as a pair of friends (seen as the prince, young and with no required task for this event, was free from most etiquette). 

That night, the kingdom of Lucis was betrayed.

King Regis knew. He needed no second glance to realize this was to happen: he knew it the moment Niflheim offered to sign peace. Prince Noctis and company, younger and less experienced, trusting far too much in King Regis’ decision, had had no idea.  
When Niflheim troops attacked, Lucis presented resistance. Kingsglaives entered in action; the Shield of the King fought at his side until the very end; the prince and his friends were protected, and had even fought on their own.

The result was that of a victory spilled in defeat, or a defeat spilled of victory.

King Regis lost his life, nearly after his shield, Clarus Amicitia. But they brought to death along themselves Emperor Aldercapt and traitor Drautos. The queen of Tenebrae lost her life as well, but so did the heads of the enemy troops; those died, but under the price of many Lucis soldiers and Kingsglaives’ lives.  
And as the massacre happened, Chancellor Ardyn Izunia revealed himself to be a wizard with no good intentions.

The king dead and the prince young and suffering of inexperience and a limp leg, Chancellor Ardyn made his way through the Lucis forces all on his own with the flicker of a hand, straight towards prince Noctis. His goal, to eradicate the blood line of the Lucis and put an end to the family and the magic with them, with the bonus victory of taking Lady Lunafreya’s life, important to the chancellor as she had come to be the Oracle, another ancient blood line of white magic healers that he seeked to end.  
Despite his great power, chancellor Ardyn found himself terribly injured after having tried to break through Kingsglaive forces: the king had yet not fallen by then, so the Lucis forces kept their magic and weapons with themselves, and, their lives in exchange, they had managed to harm the chancellor enough to almost leave him in agony by the time he reached for prince Noctis.  
Wizard Ardyn Izunia, however, found yet one last obstacle before he could attack prince Noctis: his sworn shield.

Appearing from a side and holding up his large shield and two-handed sword, Gladiolus Amicitia stood in between, his feet nailing themselves to the ground, and the mind entirely focused on not letting anything through him so long he could stand and breathe. Majorly injured and knowing himself in disadvantage, the wizard decided to not approach another step, and changed his plans: raising a hand and starting to recite rhymes, nobody understood he was recalling upon a spell until it was too late.  
Despite not being prepared for magic, Gladiolus did not move when the power beam quickly approached him and collided with his shield. He had to put all his forces into not falling and into not putting the arms down; growling, groaning and resisting, Gladiolus stood with all his might against the spell, while the wizard kept reciting and laughing somewhere in the distance.

But the power was too great for a single shield to stop: the metal of the shield started shattering, but not even then did Gladiolus move. He did not hesitate, even when the shield broke and the spell hit him, wrapping him into its energy, and making him yell as it did.  
The wizard, while Gladiolus was resisting, had also casted another spell upon the survivors in the castle, and all of them had found themselves to be reduced into objects, literal pieces of furniture. There, a Kingsglaive approaching to attack the wizard fell to the floor turned into a broom. Over there, another one fell and hit ground turned into a coat rack.  
Lady Lunafreya, commoner Prompto Argentum, and the rest of the Lucis forces…  


And while Gladiolus received the spell intended for Noctis, the Wizard, acknowledging he counted with no time to cast it again and aim for the prince, found no other escape but to cover prince Noctis into the same spell as casted upon the rest of the castle: had the wizard repeated the one spell previously intended for the prince, he would have lost all his energy and would not manage to escape by the time Gladiolus would recover senses.

Having had changed the plan and unable to have killed prince Noctis, the wizard decided that the spell would be enough for his plan of ending the line of the Lucis even if just as a concept.  
Exiting the castle and casting yet another curse upon the entire Kingdom this time, the wizard made the people of Lucis and Insomnia forget about their king and prince: cursed upon without noticing, the loyal plebeians’ minds had their memories of the castle having once been occupied erased, and no trace of King Regis or son, no sign of any nobleman or woman, no sign of the Oracle in their memories to recall.  
There was one who remembered: Tenebraean prince Ravus Nox Fleuret, whose story must be shared in another moment, and who escaped under the self-promise of rescuing his sister one day, no matter what he needed to do.

Forgotten by the people of Lucis, the survivors of the castle could only stand in awe and shock, unable to speak, unable to understand.  
And in the middle of the room where prince Noctis was last seen, surrounded by furniture that had previously not been there, stood a single shadow.  
A beast. A hideous, imposing beast who, despite having done well in his duty of protecting his prince’s life, felt himself to be drowned in the most humiliating and devastating of defeats.

Defeated, for the wizard left no clue behind on how to ever break the curse…  
Perhaps, no clue simply meant there was not an answer.

Was there?


End file.
